The people of Ukraine – represented by their president, Volodymyr Zelenskyand by its civil society organizations and elected representatives – obtained this Wednesday the Sakharov Prize freedom of conscience, the highest award granted by the European Union in the field of human rights.
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The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, announced before the hemicycle gathered in Strasbourg (France) that this year’s Sakharov Prize will go to the people of Ukraine, after he was nominated by the popular, social democratic and liberal groups, and the conservatives asked to specifically reward Zelensky.
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“There has been consensus on this decision. For the last nine months, the European Parliament and the world have seen Ukrainians heroically defending their country, their freedoms, their homes and families. They are also risking their lives for Europe, to safeguard the values that we all believe in,” Metsola said.
For the last nine months, the European Parliament and the world have seen Ukrainians heroically defending their country, their freedoms, their homes and families.
The prize, endowed with 50,000 euros, recognizes Zelensky’s “courage and resistance”, as well as the role of the State Emergency Services of Ukraine; the founder of the Angeles de Taira medical evacuation unit, Yulia Pajevska; the lawyer and human rights activist Oleksandra Matviychuk; the Yellow Ribbon Civil Resistance Movement, and the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, Iván Fiódorov.
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The award will be presented at a ceremony during the December plenary session in Strasbourg.
The award, Metsola stressed, is for the Ukrainians who are fighting on the ground, but also for those who have been forced to flee, those who have lost family and friends and for those who fight for what they believe in.
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This is the third year in a row that the Sakharov Prize has been awarded to a person or entity linked in some way to the opposition to the Russian regime or its ally Belarus: in 2020 it was won by the democratic opposition to the regime of Alexandr Lukashenko and in 2021 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalni.
Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has facilitated an unprecedented unity in the candidacies of the main groups in the European Parliament for this prize, which only diverged in whether to nominate the people of Ukraine represented by their president or by their civil organizations and defenders of human rights.
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Since 1988, the European Parliament has awarded the Sakharov Prize, an award named in honor of the Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov and endowed with 50,000 euros.
Since then, it has been received by personalities such as the South African leader Nelson Mandela, the young Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, the Spanish platform ¡Basta Ya! and opponents of the Cuban regime such as the Ladies in White or Guillermo Fariñas.
EFE
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